TC'S AFRICAN DIASPORA CINE-CLUB

Films from Africa and the African Diaspora

Free Monthly Screenings
Every Last Friday of the Month

at
Teachers College, CU
525 West 120th Street, NY
Info: (212) 864-1760

Train 1 to 116th street
walk uptown four blocks

Tickets: Free of Charge.
Photo ID required to enter the building
Call: 212 864 1760

To be added to our list: info@africanfilm.com

Welcome to TC's African Diaspora Ciné-Club

Created in May 1993 by ArtMattan Productions and launched in November 1993, the African Diaspora Film Festival's mission is to expand the traditional views of what the Black experience is by showcasing films focusing on the diversity and richness of the global Black experience. Reinaldo Barroso-Spech (Ed.D., TC, 2001) and Diarah N’Daw-Spech (MBA, CU, 1992) created the festival on their belief that education is key for the understanding of people and that movies can be a very important device to reach that goal.

The African Diaspora Ciné-Club is a project developed in collaboration with the Office for Diversity and Community at TC, the Center for Outreach and Innovation at TC, The Center for African Education at TC and the African Diaspora Film Festival (ADFF). All the entities involved share the common goal of intellectually enriching the large TC community and contributing to a better understanding among people of diverse backgrounds. The films selected are all associated to different themes thus exposing the audience to a large variety of topics presented in the context of Africa and its Diaspora. These and other similar films can be purchased online at www.AfricanDiasporaVideo.com.

The African Diaspora Ciné-Club is an intimate version of the African Diaspora Film Festival, an event of seventeen days with an average of 60-80 films from all over the world, guest filmmakers and panel discussions held yearly at the Anthology Film Archives, The Schomburg Center in Harlem and Teachers College, Columbia University. For more information about the African Diaspora Film Festival and to register for the ADFF course at TC in the Fall, contact CEO&I at (212) 678-3653.

Sponsored by
The Office for Diversity and Community, TC;
The Center for Educational Outreach
and Innovation, TC;
The Center for African Education, TC;
The African Diaspora Film Festival www.NYADFF.org

Friday, May 30th at 6:00pm
Room: TBA

100 DAYS

Rwanda/UK, 2001, 96min, drama in Rwandese and English subtitles

Directed by Nick Hughes

Set in the breathtaking natural beauty of the Rwanda countryside, this first ever fiction film made about the Rwanda civil war tells a powerful story of genocide and human survival with compassion and integrity. The film centers on a pair of young lovers; Baptiste is more than ready to have sex with his girlfriend Josette, but she refuses, arguing that when they are married they can have all the sex they would like. Meanwhile, powerful Hutu leaders have had enough of Tutsi rebels and call on all Hutus to kill their Tutsi neighbors. As chaos breaks out, the Tutsis flee and the lovers are separated. Josette and her family find solace in a Catholic church run by a Hutu priest. The Catholic Church, the state, and the French army look the other way as bloodshed ensues. When the Belgian army, sent in to protect the church, is called away on an emergency, the Hutus attack and massacre hundreds of women and children. Josette is saved by the priest, who obliges her to become his concubine and repeatedly rapes her. She miraculously survives, but she is only a husk of the woman that she was. As the Tutsis regroup, they exact terrible revenge. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide.

“Docudrama filmmaking at its finest” ~ Dennis Harvey, VARIETY

“100 Days succeeds as drama, and succeeds in telling the truth” ~ Mark Doyle, BBC

Q&A after the screening

APRIL 25 at 6:00pm
Room: TBA

DARATT / Dry Season

Chad/France, 2006, 95min, drama, French/Arabic with English subtitles

Directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun

Chad, 2006. The government has granted amnesty to all war criminals. Atim, 16 years old, is given a revolver by his grandfather so that he may kill the man who killed his father... Atim leaves his village for N'djamena, seeking a man he does not know. He quickly locates him: former war criminal Nassara is now married and settled down as the owner of a small bakery... With the firm intention of killing him, Atim gets closer to Nassara under the guise of lookin for work, and is hired as an apprentice baker… Intrigued by Atim's attitude toward him, Nassara takes him under his wing and teaches him the secrets of making bread... Over the weeks, a strange relationship evolves between the two. Despite his disgust, Atim seems to recognise in Nassara the father figure he has always needed, while Nassara sees the teenager as a potential son. One day, he suggests adoption...

Official Competition Venice Film Festival 2006 - WINNER Special Jury Prize

Q&A with director after the screening

Friday, February 29th at 6:00pm
Room 179 Grace Dodge

NY'S DIRTY LAUNDRY

USA, 2007, 78min, drama in English
Directed by Patrice Johnson

In the weeks following 9/11, racial paradigms are shifted and hidden prejudices are revealed in this heated and often hilarious exchange between the members of two immigrant families (one Afro-Caribbean and the other Arab-Muslim) who clash in a crowded Brooklyn laundromat and in an airless NYC taxicab.

Q&A with director